Monday, July 2, 2018

Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One

Tate Britain, Linbury Galleries

 5 June – 23 September 2018





George Grosz Grey Day 1921.
George Grosz Grey Day 1921. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie. Acquired by the Federal State of Berlin © Estate of George Grosz, Princeton, N.J. 2018.
Marking 100 years since the end of the First World War, this exhibition explores the immediate impact of the conflict on British, German and French art. As the first exhibition to examine the culture of memorials alongside new developments in post-war art it will consider how artists responded to the physical and psychological scars left on Europe. Aftermath brings together over 150 works from 1916 to 1932 by artists including George Grosz, Fernand Léger and C.R.W. Nevinson. During this tumultuous period, artists began to explore new imagery and new ways of making art in their responses to the experience of war, the culture of remembrance, and the rebuilding of cities and societies.
The First World War began to be constructed as memory almost as soon as it had begun. During the war artists created works which reflected on its long-term impact. Battlefield landscapes and images of soldiers’s graves such as

 Image result for [[["xjs.sav.en_US.y5vqFNLwkD0.O",5]],[["id","type","created_timestamp","last_modified_timestamp","signed_redirect_url","dominant_color_rgb","tag_info","url","title","comment","snippet","image","thumbnail","num_ratings","avg_rating","page","job"]],[["dt_fav_images"]],10000]

William Orpen’s A Grave in a Trench 1917

 Image result for [[["xjs.sav.en_US.y5vqFNLwkD0.O",5]],[["id","type","created_timestamp","last_modified_timestamp","signed_redirect_url","dominant_color_rgb","tag_info","url","title","comment","snippet","image","thumbnail","num_ratings","avg_rating","page","job"]],[["dt_fav_images"]],10000]

and Paul Jouve’s Tombe d’un soldat serbe a Kenali 1917 evoked silence and absence in the aftermath of battle.
After the armistice official public memorials provided a focus for mourning and remembrance. Artists including Käthe Kollwitz, André Mare and Charles Sargeant Jagger produced sculptural memorials to commemorate those who lost their lives in the conflict. The exhibition explores the different forms that memorials took, and their importance for social and political cohesion. It also shows the more personal memorials created using relics of the battlefield such as shrapnel and mortar shells.
Soldiers’ wounds were an alternative memorial, visible in flesh rather than stone, and disabled veterans were a constant reminder of the terrible cost of war.

Works such as


George Grosz - “Daum” Marries her Pedantic Automaton “George” 1920.jpg

George Grosz (1893-1959)
Grey Day
1921
Oil paint on canvas
1150 x 800 mm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie. Acquired by the Federal State of Berlin.
© Estate of George Grosz, Princeton, N.J. 2018. 

George Grosz’s Grey Day 1921




Otto Dix - Prostitute and Disabled War Veteran. Two Victims of Capitalism 1923.jpg

Otto Dix (1891-1969)
Prostitute and Disabled War Veteran. Two Victims of Capitalism
1923
Pen and ink on yellow card-board
469 x 373 mm
LWL- Museum für Kunst and Kultur (Westfälisches Landesmuseum) / Sabine Ahlbrand-Dornseif. © Estate of Otto Dix 2018.

and Otto Dix’s Prostitute and Disabled War Veteran 1923 used imagery of disabled veterans to demonstrate the inequalities in German society. In France, veterans were an important part of the visual culture of memorial ceremonies. In Britain, images of wounded soldiers such as Henry Tonks’s medical pastel portraits were usually seen in the context of therapy and healing.
This turbulent period also saw the birth of dada and surrealism in the work of Hannah Höch, Max Ernst, André Masson and Edward Burra among others. Artists used new visual forms to process experiences and memories of conflict. Dada photomontages by Hannah Höch reused war imagery while fragmented bodies and prosthetic limbs featured in works like Grosz and Heartfield’s The Petit-Bourgeois Philistine Heartfield Gone Wild. Electro-Mechanical Tatlin Sculpture 1920.

As well as the physical and psychological scars left on Europe, the exhibition also shows how post-war society began to rebuild itself, inspiring artists such as Georges Braque, Christian Schad and Winifred Knights to return to classicism and tradition while others such as Fernand Léger, Paul Citroen and C.R.W. Nevinson turned their minds to visions of a technological future in the modern city.

Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One is curated by Dr Emma Chambers, Curator, Modern British Art and Dr Rachel Rose Smith, Assistant Curator, Modern British Art.

 Aftermath Art in the Wake of World War One

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue from Tate Publishing .

Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One
Tate Britain, 5 June – 20 September 2018

C.R.W Nevinson - Paths of Glory 1917.jpg

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (1889 – 1946)
Paths of Glory
1917
Oil paint on canvas
457 x 609 mm
© IWM (Art.IWM ART 518)

Christian Schad - Self-Portrait 1927.jpg

Christian Schad 1894 – 1982
Self-Portrait
1927
Oil on wood
760 x 620 mm
Lent from a private collection 1994
© Christian Schad Stiftung Aschaffenburg/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and DACS, London 2017

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson - Ypres After the First Bombardment 1916.jpg

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (1889 – 1946)
Ypres After the First Bombardment
1916
Oil paint on canvas
991 x 1248 x 73 mm
Museums Sheffield 

Curt Querner - Demonstration 1930.jpg

Curt Querner (1904 – 1976)
Demonstration
1930
Oil paint on canvas
870 x 660 mm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie.
Photo credit: bpk/ Jörg P. Anders
© DACS, 2018

Edward Burra, The Snack Bar 1930 (c) The Estate of Edward Burra, courtesy Lefevre Fine Art, London.jpg

Edward Burra 1905-1976
The Snack Bar
1930
Oil paint on canvas
762 x 559 mm
Tate
© The estate of Edward Burra, courtesy Lefevre Fine Art, London
George Grosz - Grey Day 1921.jpg

George Grosz (1893-1959)
“Daum” Marries her Pedantic Automaton “George” in May 1920, John Heartfield is Very Glad of It (Meta-Mech. Constr. After Prof. R. Huasmann)
1920
Watercolour, pencil, pen, ink and collage on card
425 x 319 mm
Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Berlin
© Estate of George Grosz, Princeton, N.J. 2018. 

George Grosz -The Petit-Bourgeois Philistine Heartfield Gone Wild. Electro-Mechanical Tatlin Sculpture 1920.jpg

George Grosz (1893-1959)
The Petit-Bourgeois Philistine Heartfield Gone Wild. Electro-Mechanical Tatlin Sculpture
1920
900 x 450 x 450 mm
Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Berlin
© Estate of George Grosz, Princeton, N.J. 2018. 

Georges Rouault - Arise, you dead! (War, plate 54) .jpg

Georges Rouault (1871-1958)
"Arise, you dead!" (War, plate 54)
1922-27
Photo-etching, aquatint and drypoint on paper
800 x 630 x 30 mm
Fondation Georges Rouault
© ADAGCP, Paris and DACS, London 2018

Hannah Hoch - Dada Rundschau 1919.jpg

Hannah Hoch (1889 – 1978)
Dada Rundschau
1919
437 x 345 mm
Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Berlin
© DACS, 2018

Jacob Epstein - Torso in Metal from 'The Rock Drill' 1913-14.jpg

Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)
Torso in Metal from “The Rock Drill”
1913-14
Bronze
705 x 584 x 445 mm
Tate
© The Estate of Jacob Epstein

Otto Dix - War, Skull 1924.jpg

Otto Dix (1891-1969)
War: Skull
1924
Etching on paper
257 x 195 mm
The George Economou Collection.
© Estate of Otto Dix 2018

Paul Nash - Wire 1918-19.jpg

Paul Nash (1889 – 1946)
Wire
1918-9
Watercolour, chalk and ink on paper
486 x 635 mm
© IWM (Art.IWM ART 2705)

William Orpen - To the Unknown British Soldier in France 1921-8.jpg

William Orpen (1878 – 1931)
To the Unknown British Soldier in France
1921-8
Oil paint on canvas
1542 x 1289 mm
© IWM (Art.IWM ART 4438)

William Roberts - The Dance Club (The Jazz Party) 1923.jpg

William Roberts (1895 – 1980)
The Dance Club (The Jazz Party)
1923
Oil paint on canvas
762 x 1066 mm
Leeds Museums and Galleries
© Estate of John David Roberts. By permission of the Treasury Solicitor